Mar
15
Seeing a Catalytic Chemical Reaction in Real Time
March 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) used ultrafast, ultrabright X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to enable unprecedented views of a catalyst in action, an important step in the effort to develop cleaner and more efficient energy sources. The SLAC used LCLS, together with computerized simulations, to reveal surprising […]
Mar
14
A Fusion that Works: Is Working Much Better
March 14, 2013 | 4 Comments
On February 28 Lawrenceville Plasma Physics’ (LPP) experimental plasma focus device was fired and the team observed a record 380 Gigawatts (GW) of peak power in the ejected ion beam. The most powerful beam previously observed had a peak power of 93 GW making the newest beam measurement a four-fold improvement. To provide context for […]
Mar
13
The Nuke The Anti Nuke Crowd Should Love
March 13, 2013 | 2 Comments
Transatomic, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff is developing a nuclear reactor designed to overcome the major barriers to nuclear power. For the anti nuclear folks the design offers to burn up the existing spent fuel from the world’s fleet of nuclear reactors in a design that doesn’t offer a chance for a meltdown. That […]
Mar
12
Solving the Puzzle of Binding Two Unusual Materials
March 12, 2013 | 1 Comment
A thin film of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) on top of gallium arsenide (GaAs) converts heat into electricity or electricity to cooling creating cooling devices for electronics or generating electricity from heat sources. For years, researchers have developed these thin films and while they knew it could be done, it was not clear how, because the […]
Mar
11
Quantum Dot Photovoltaic Solar Cell Improvement
March 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Quantum dot photovoltaics are not market ready just yet, but efficiency and production costs are quite attractive. A new technique developed by University of Toronto Engineering Professor Ted Sargent and his research group could lead to significantly more efficient solar cells. Sargent’s group has devised a new technique to improve efficiency in colloidal quantum dot […]